In the Name of God: The Exceedingly and Everlastingly Loving and Caring

March 30 was National Doctor’s Day, and Hospitals all across our country – including my own – held celebrations in honor of the doctors who tirelessly work helping save the lives of their patients. And I must say that it is nice to be appreciated for the hard work that we do, even if it is once a year.

March 30, incidentally, was also the first day of the Passover holiday, and the coincidence could not be more fitting for the occasion.

As a Muslim, Passover has a very special meaning for me, even though I do not celebrate it as a religious holiday. That is because the Quran has several passages that speak of the Passover and the happy occasion of the freedom of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. Even though I am of Egyptian heritage, I am rooting wholeheartedly for the Hebrews in the Passover saga, for they – and their Prophet Moses – are my spiritual forebears.

The coincidence with Passover is also fitting because, just like Moses led the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt, physicians also work to lead their patients out of the bondage of illness.

Furthermore, just like death passed over the Hebrews in Egypt, physicians work tirelessly to try to have death pass over their patients as well. At the time of Moses, it was sheeps’s blood on the door that made death pass over the Hebrews. Today, it is the medicines and technologies at our disposal that frequently make death pass over our patients as well.

Now, there are huge caveats here. First, I am not – even for one second – suggesting that I, as a physician, am like into a Prophet or even remotely akin to one. I am not worthy of the dust on Moses’ shoes. Second, no success that I enjoy as a physician comes without the help of God. It was neither the sheep’s blood back then nor is it modern medicine today that allowed death to pass over. It is only the power of God.

At the same time, illness is enslaving, robbing its victims of the freedom to live without pain, without suffering, and without difficulty. Being given the chance to try and help people become free of that enslaving illness is the gift of a lifetime. And when we are successful, the joy is similar to that felt when the Hebrews were finally able to leave Egypt as free people.

Ever since I was a small child, being a doctor is all I have ever wanted to do. And the fact that I have been given this gift overwhelms me in awe. All I can do is two things: first, constantly thank God for His tremendous blessing, and second, work as hard as I can to be the best doctor I can be. It is the only way I can truly show gratitude for being able to give my patients the joy of their own personal Passover each and every day.

I had submitted the comment on the NY Times web page calling for comments on the coverage of the Austin terrorist. They wanted to know what I felt about the coverage, and this is what I submitted:

The coverage is ABSOLUTELY different for White Christian attackers. Had the Austin terrorist been Muslim, there would have been national hysteria. It’s a double standard and must be called out every time.

The point, however, remains salient: had the terrorist in Austin been a Muslim – with all the same rationales as Mark Conditt – he would have immediately been labeled a terrorist. Period.

In fact, I knew that the Austin terrorist was not a Muslim or person of color, because had he been one, there would have been national hysteria. And multiple tweets from the President about banning Muslims or building that wall. And backlash against innocent Muslims who have nothing to do with the criminal acts of Muslim savages.

The quiet coverage tipped me off to the fact that the Austin terrorist was probably a White male. And it is so interesting: when the attacker is a White male, then everyone becomes technical about the definition of terrorism, including the NY Times:

Under the law, terrorism is a violent, criminal act intended to intimidate civilians and governments for an ideological, political or religious purpose. In this case, we have yet to see evidence that the attacks in Texas were politically motivated, though certainly there has been suspicion that there was racial animus because the first two victims were African-American.

The Times typically follows the lead of law enforcement for when to label a particular crime as terrorism, given that it has a specific legal definition.

As we’ve seen, law enforcement does not always apply the formal term terrorism to acts of mass violence.

In the San Bernardino, Calif., shooting that killed 14 people, law enforcement officials called Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook terrorists. The same was true in Orlando, Fla., where Omar Mateen killed 49 people at a nightclub.

But in Charleston, S.C., where Dylann Roof murdered nine African-Americans at a historically black church, law enforcement did not label him a terrorist. The same was true in Las Vegas, where Stephen Paddock killed 58 people at a concert.

How can this not be seen as a double standard? It is exactly that, and this double standard must be called out every single time.

In the Name of God: The Exceedingly and Everlastingly Loving and Caring

The Trump Administration has created a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at the Department of Health and Human Services. This office was set up to hear complaints from medical professionals who have felt pressured to provide medical services that conflict with their religious beliefs. Roger Severino, head of civil-rights enforcement at HHS, said in an article in the Atlantic: “the state should not force people to go against their integrated view of humanity.”

This was met by considerable alarm by many civil-rights advocates. The very article title in the Atlantic read: “When the Religious Doctor Refuses to Treat You.” The article cited some horror stories:

One 2000 case involved a New Jersey labor-and-delivery nurse named Yvonne Shelton, whose Pentecostal faith meant, to her, that she could not participate “directly or indirectly in ending a life․” In 1995, Shelton’s hospital admitted a patient who was “standing in a pool of blood” and diagnosed with placenta previa. The doctor ordered an emergency C-section, and Shelton was told to scrub in to assist. But when she learned the procedure would terminate the pregnancy, Shelton refused to participate, delaying the procedure by 30 minutes, the hospital claimed. Shelton was fired after refusing another job within the same hospital.

[…]

In 2015, a lesbian couple in Michigan had a pediatrician decline to care for their six-day-old infant, Bay, because, as the doctor later explained to the couple, “after much prayer following your prenatal, I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient-doctor relationships that I normally do with my patients.”

Now, I am a religious doctor. My faith is very important to me, and it gives me the strength to tend to very sick people in the ICU. At the same time, I can honestly say that there has never come a time when being a doctor has conflicted with my convictions. Though I am a religious doctor, I would never refuse to treat someone. Never.

Of course, it is not right to compel a healthcare provider to perform a medical procedure – such as an elective abortion – against their will. At the same time, we need to be very careful not to take this “conscientious objection” too far.

For instance, it would be absolutely wrong for me – as both a doctor and a Muslim, frankly – to refuse treatment to someone who contracted HIV from IV drug abuse because Islam prohibits drugs. That would be unconscionable. No matter how someone may have gotten sick, my job as a doctor is to take care of them. Period.

Being blessed to be a doctor or nurse – or any other health-related occupation – is something that can never be taken for granted. People place their complete trust in us – total strangers – to take care of them and be a force of God’s Healing power. We must take great care in focusing on the work to make them well. Period.

Imposing our own moral judgments and religious beliefs on the healthcare of others – even in times of life and death – is a dangerous slippery slope. I, for one, refuse to take this path.

In the Name of God: The Exceedingly and Everlastingly Loving and Caring

The furor over the President’s detestable comments about Haitians and African countries continues. And it should. Such comments are not becoming of a high school student, much less the President of the United States.

His denial that he ever said such a thing only makes the situation worse, and it is baffling how so many politicians in his Party are deafeningly silent in response to what he said.

And what our President should realize is that we in the West owe a lot to those “s***hole countries” in Africa.

The President is a businessman, and he has inked many, many deals in his professional career. Those deals were signed on paper. And while paper – as we know it today – was first invented in China, it’s ancient precursor, papyrus, was widely used in Egypt well before paper was invented. And, of course, Egypt is one of those “s***hole countries” in Africa about which the President spoke.

His business deals – worth all those millions – needed a lot of mathematics, right? Well, guess what? Mathematics were invented in Africa, where all those “s***hole countries” are found.

While the President’s latest physical showed him to be in great health, if he were to ever need surgery, he would need to thank the ancient Egyptians for that as well. That is because the earliest known surgery was performed in Egypt in 2750 BC. That’s way before surgery came to Norway, and once again, Egypt is in Africa – where all those “s***hole countries” are located – according to Mr. Trump.

The oldest existing university in the world is not Harvard, not Yale, not even Oxford. No, it is the University of Karueein, founded in 859 AD. This University is in Fez, Morocco. That’s in Africa, by the way, where all those “s***hole countries” are located.

“We did not evolve from a single ‘cradle of mankind’ somewhere in East Africa,” said Philipp Gunz, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and a co-author of two new studies on the fossils, published in the journal Nature. “We evolved on the African continent.”

This is only a small list of all the contributions that Africa has made to the history of the world, to the history of the West. We in the West owe a great deal to Africa and all of her “s***hole countries.”

If only our President knew this; if only our President understood the history of the world; if only our President knew the truth of things, maybe he wouldn’t have said the vile things he said. If only…

All throughout my life – in various months of the year, in various mosques across the world – I have heard, in beautiful and melodious Arabic, the story of Christmas:

AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place and kept herself in seclusion from them, whereupon We sent unto her Our angel of revelation, who appeared to her in the shape of a well-made human being. She exclaimed: “Verily, ‘I seek refuge from thee with the Most Gracious! [Approach me not] if thou art conscious of Him!” [The angel] answered: “I’ am but a messenger of thy Lord, [who says,] `I shall bestow upon thee the gift of a son endowed with purity.'” Said she: “How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me? – for, never have I been unchaste?” [The angel] answered: “Thus it is; [but] thy Sustainer says, `This is easy for Me; and [thou shalt have a son,] so that We might make him a symbol unto mankind and an act of grace from US. And it was a thing decreed [by God].

At one time, I did not understand the Arabic being recited. As I became older, however, God opened up to me the doors of Arabic understanding, and my admiration and love for the passages in the Qur’an about the birth of Christ only grew in strength. The verse quoted above is only a small part of a longer passage that details the birth of Christ and the scandal it engendered among the people at the time. And that passage also includes the miracle of a newborn Jesus speaking to the people in defense of his mother:

[But] he [Jesus] said: “Behold, I am a servant of God. He has vouchsafed unto me revelation and made me a prophet, and made me blessed wherever I may be; and He has enjoined upon me prayer and charity as long as I live, and [has endowed me with] piety towards my mother; and He has not made me haughty or bereft of grace. “Hence, peace was upon me on the day when I was born, and [will be upon me] on the day of my death, and on the day when I shall be raised to life [again]!”

These verses occur in the 19th chapter of the Qur’an, aptly named “Mary,” and it isn’t the only place in which the story of the birth of Christ is recounted. There are dozens of verses in the Quran that speak about the miracles of Jesus (5:110), the Last Supper (5:113-115), among many others. His mother, the Virgin Mary, is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur’an. Christ, in fact, is mentioned more times in the Qur’an than the Prophet Muhammad himself.

If only more people knew this truth about Islam and its deep love and honor for Jesus Christ. If only more people knew that belief in, and love for, Jesus Christ and his mother is an essential aspect of Islamic faith. If only more people knew that no devout Muslim would dare attack and malign Jesus Christ or his mother as some purported followers of Christ have done with the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them both).

In our world today, in which the rhetoric against Islam and Muslims is so toxic – frequently for craven political or financial gain – Christians and Muslims need to come together on areas in which they agree: a common love for Jesus Christ. Ideally, Christians, Muslims, and Jews should be the closest of religious communities, for they have so much in common as the living spiritual children of Abraham.

Yes, there are savages (“barbarian” is too nice a word) who claim to act in Islam’s name that commit horrific crimes against Christians. These satanic monsters betray both the letter and spirit of Islam, which teaches deep love for Jesus Christ and respect and honor for his followers.

“Peace was upon me on the day when I was born,” the infant Jesus says in the Qur’an.

As we approach December 25, the day Christians celebrate this momentous occasion, I pray that this very same peace reigns over our world and over all of us who live on it. I pray that this very same peace reigns over all communities of faith, so that the forces of hatred and division do not win the day. And I pray that this very same peace reigns over our country in the months and years ahead, and that we emerge an even greater people than we already are.

In the Name of God: The Exceedingly and Everlastingly Loving and Caring

I know people mean well. I realize they don’t know whether or not I celebrate Christmas and do not want to offend me. I figure that they believe “Happy Holidays” is safe and encompasses all faiths – or no faith at all. I get it.

As a Muslim at Christmas, however, it’s still a little annoying.

Now, as a Muslim, do I celebrate Christmas as a religious festival of the birth of the Son of God? No. That does not mean that I don’t try to spread cheer and joy with others during this time of year.

My family and I send Christmas cards to our friends and neighbors, and we love receiving them in return. We give gifts to our friends, neighbors, and our children’s teachers. And we appreciate receiving them as well.

And we enjoy telling everyone “Merry Christmas” (although I like better the “Happy Christmas” greeting our British cousins give each other).

There was one time in my life – while I was suffering from the fires of fanatic stupidity – when I believed it was “forbidden” to say “Merry Christmas” to others, that doing so would betray my Muslim identity and faith. Then, I grew up.

Now I understand that there is nothing wrong – as a Muslim – with saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone I meet. There is nothing in that statement – “Merry Christmas” – that betrays my Muslim identity and faith. In fact, saying “Merry Christmas” is wholly consistent with my Muslim faith.

The Prophet (pbuh) said, “Spread Peace to one another.” Saying “Merry Christmas” is nothing if not spreading peace. It is being a good neighbor, a good friend, a good colleague, and a good citizen. Islam demands that I be all of those people, and so what could possibly wrong with saying “Merry Christmas”?

“Happy Holidays” just doesn’t do it for me. It’s so vanilla and devoid of meaning. Yes, in this time of year, there are multiple holidays bunched together in very close proximity. Thus saying “Happy Holidays” conveys three greetings at once: “Happy Thanksgiving,” and “Merry Christmas, and “Happy New Year.”

Still, to me at least, it does not seem heartfelt. When I say “Merry (or Happy) Christmas,” I am saying: “I pray you and yours have happiness and joy this Christmas.” It is a sincere prayer to God for peace for you. What could possibly be wrong with this?

“Happy Holidays” feels to me like “Salamu alaikum” in the Muslim world. When I was there in 2006, everyone said “Salamu alaikum,” which means “Peace be with you.” But it had no meaning. It felt like “hey,” or “yo,” and it betrayed what it really means to pray for peace for someone else.

Of course, I do not doubt anyone’s sincerity when they say “Happy Holidays” at all. Like I said in the beginning, I know they mean well. For this Muslim, however, during this time of year, I like to say “Merry Christmas.” It just feels right to me, and it’s a small way that I can help spread peace in a world that is tragically devoid of it.

As is so typical in our day and age, controversies die with the next news cycle. It seems like an age ago that our President was under fire – rightfully so – for retweeting anti-Muslim videos from a British nationalist group.

One of these videos depicts a Muslim man destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary, implying that Muslims somehow hate the Virgin Mary and all of Christianity. This is completely untrue. Islam has such high regard for both Jesus and Mary.

The Virgin Mary is the only woman to be mentioned by name in the Quran. She is the only woman to have an entire chapter – Chapter 19 – named after her. The story of her birth is recounted in beautiful eloquence in the Quran:

“A woman of (the House of Imran) prayed: ‘O my sustainer! Behold, unto Thee do I vow (the child) that is in my womb to be devoted to Thy service. Accept it, then, from me: verily, Thou alone art all-hearing, all-knowing!’ But when she had given birth to the child, she said: ‘O my sustainer! Behold, I have given birth to a female’ – the while God had been fully aware of what she would give birth to – ‘and the male is not like the female. And I have named her Mary, and verily, I seek Thy protection for her and her offspring against Satan, the accursed.’” (3:35-36)

The Quran details how she took a special secluded place in the Temple where she worshiped God devoutly:

“And mention Mary in the Book: when she withdrew from her people to a place in the East and secluded herself from them…” (19:16-17).

It was there that the Angel Gabriel appeared to her to give her the good news of the birth of her son, Jesus:

“…We sent her Our spirit, which appeared to her just like a man. She said, ‘I take refuge from you with the Benevolent One, if you are conscientious.’ He said, ‘I am only a messenger from your Lord, to give you a sinless son.’” (16:17-19)

Moreover, God singles out the Virgin Mary as the ideal example of the believer:

“And God cites as an example of those who believed…Mary, the daughter of Imran. She maintained her chastity, then we blew into her from Our spirit. She believed in the words of her Lord and His scriptures; she was obedient.” (66:11-12)

So, the Virgin Mary is very special in Islam. Therefore, while it is true that we Muslims do not believe in making statutes of any sacred figure, destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary is absolutely unacceptable. Period.

In fact, our Scripture specifically tells us not to insult others’ religious beliefs:

[Believers], do not revile those they call on beside God in case they, in their hostility and ignorance, revile God. To each community We make their own actions seem alluring, but in the end they will return to their Lord and He will inform them of all they did (6:108)

Therefore, that Muslim man in that video was betraying his faith by destroying that statue, which is insulting to so many Christians around the world who – like we Muslims – share in the honor and veneration of the mother of Christ.

In the end, it makes me very sad that there is a perception that Islam somehow denigrates Christianity or teaches Muslims to hate Christians. This is so untrue. In fact, the Quran says that Christians are the ones closest in love to Muslims:

…you are sure to find that the closest in affection towards the believers are those who say, ‘We are Christians,’… (5:82)

Our common love for Jesus and his mother should be that bond that brings Muslims and Christians together. Our common belief in the sanctity and beauty of the Virgin Mary should be that bond that should remove animosity between us. Our common worship of God, the Lord of all, should be enough to prevent anyone from tearing us apart.

In the Name of God: The Exceedingly and Everlastingly Loving and Caring

There is no question that Jerusalem is at the center of Jewish spiritual life and consciousness. It is not a matter of “if,” but “when,” that Jerusalem will one day be officially recognized by the world as the capital of Israel. Political reality dictates this.

Political reality also dictates that Jerusalem is claimed by Palestinians as the capital of their future state, and while some are trying to erase Arab presence in Jerusalem, this city is inextricably tied to Palestinian life and consciousness as well. Add to that the fact that all three Abrahamic faiths lay claim to Jerusalem on a spiritual level, and it is no surprise that the issue of Jerusalem is so contentious.

Yet, why does Jerusalem have to be a “zero sum” city?

As a Muslim, Jerusalem is very precious to me. In this city, the great Kings and Prophets David and Solomon – two of my absolute favorites – reigned in greatness and basked in God’s glory. In this city, Jesus Christ walked and preached and performed miracles by God’s permission and grace. And, in this city, my beloved Prophet Muhammad prayed to God along with David and Solomon and Jesus and all the other Prophets, may God’s peace and blessings be upon all of them.

I would never deny that Jerusalem is “for the Jews,” just as I would never deny that Jerusalem is also “for the Christians and Muslims” as well. Jerusalem can be a city for all. Jerusalem must be a city for all. And the conflict that Jerusalem suffers is so painful for me to see, because its holy soil should never be tainted by the blood of innocents.

The picture above is from Jerusalem, and it was carved by the Ottomans. Many thanks to writer Mustafa Aykol for posting the photo on Twitter. It reads, “There is nothing worthy of worship but God, and Abraham is the friend of God.”

It is Abraham that brings all of us – Jews, Christians, and Muslims – together as our father. It is Abraham, and his staunch and undying belief in the One True God, that has given birth to all of our faiths. It is Abraham who should make us see that we have more in common than we have in distinction.

And it should be the memory of the beloved Abraham which should remind us what Jerusalem actually means: “an abode of peace.” If everyone in the Holy Land finds the courage to make it so, by the will of God, it will become exactly that.

“But even by recent standards in Egypt,” said The NY Times in a recent article, “where militants have blown up Christian worshipers as they knelt at church pews and gunned down pilgrims in buses, the attack on Friday was unusually ruthless.”

The article was referring to the Nov 24 attack by militant savages, who gunned down over 300 worshipers, including children, at a Sufi mosque in the Sinai. As an American Muslim of Egyptian descent, it disgusted me to the core.

And so did the attacks on Christians in their churches by similar militant savages.

Yet, why was the attack “unusually ruthless”?

Is attacking Christians “usual” in Egypt? Is ISIS killing Christians in a church “usual ruthlessness” by “Egyptian standards”? Again, as someone who is of Egyptian ancestry, who still has family in Egypt, there is nothing “usual” about killing Christians or Muslims in their places of worship.

Killing anyone in Egypt is totally unusual and completely unbecoming of the beautiful people of Egypt that I know and love.

The bottom line is this: the savages behind this latest attack, just like the ones behind the previous ones, are just that, savages. Our Prophet called them the “dogs of Hellfire.” They are ruthless all the time, and it should come as no surprise that they would attack a mosque in Egypt.

We can never come to think that killings just as the one at the Sufi mosque are “usual.” They are not, and they never will be.

The almost daily revelations of truly horrific allegations of sexual abuse, harassment, and even sexual assault at the hands of Harvey Weinstein are breathtaking in their scope. I applaud each and every one of the women for coming forward. May the Lord give them strength and comfort and healing.

As a father of four daughters, I would not wish this type of abuse on anyone else’s child. Yet, this repeated pattern of abuse speaks to an underlying arrogance and delusion of invincibility that should serve as a cautionary tale for all: The Lord suffers no rivals whatsoever.

Power is in God’s hands alone. He gives it to whoever He wills and wants. And it is a trust from God bestowed on that person. Anyone who abuses this power will be taken to task.

Scripture says:

Oh no! The human being becomes rebellious when he sees himself as self-sufficient (96:6-7)

Whenever anyone does what Mr. Weinstein is accused of doing, he clearly believes that he can get away with it. He fears no consequences, and sees the world is at his feet. Yet, the very next verse says:

There is no doubt [however] that to your Lord will be the ultimate return (96:8)

There will be a reckoning. This arrogance will be met with the reality that the Lord suffers no rivals.

Some may be exposed in humiliating fashion in this life, like Harvey Weinstein and others. At least Mr. Weinstein has a chance to redeem himself. Yet all those who get away with it in this world will surely face humiliation and justice in the next. And at that point, it will be too late to make amends.

I do not write this to wag a self-righteous finger at Mr. Weinstein and bask in my “holiness.” No. This serves as a reminder to me and all others who may be given authority on this earth: tread lightly with any power given to you. It is a trust, and if that power goes to your head, you would be well-served to remember: the Lord suffers absolutely no rival.

Hesham A. Hassaballa

Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio.

Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, “Why I Love the Ten Commandments,” was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition.

In 2007, his blog "God, Faith, and a Pen" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is “the most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.” "God, Faith, and a Pen" has also received an award for being one of the "Top Muslim Blogs for 2010" by Awarding The Web.